An anti-violence campaigner has said there are “no excuses” for one punch attacks, as a man was left with life-changing injuries following a city centre assault.

Maxine Thompson-Curl set up charity One Punch North East after her son Kristian Thompson died in 2011 following a one punch attack in a Consett nightclub.

Reacting to the news that attacker David Izzard, 23, from Essex had been jailed for 16 months for attacking Jacob Tong in Newcastle after ‘banter’ about their accents, Maxine said the sentence was not long enough.

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Newcastle Crown Court heard that Izzard punched Mr Tong once in Times Square in November last year after the group had a verbal exchange about accents.

David Izzard, jailed for one punch attack in Newcastle city centre

He was knocked to the ground and hit his head on the pavement fracturing his skull.

The former carer spent five days in intensive care and no longer has any sense of taste or smell.

Recorder Keith Miller, at Newcastle Crown Court, told Izzard he was lucky not to be facing a murder charge over the attack.

He said: “Incidents like this are all too common. A blow to the head which is sufficiently strong to knock someone clean out is likely to result in him suffering very serious injuries when his head hits the ground.”